'The Cruel Sister' ~ Old Blind Dogs

[adjrean57]

Whaat a beautiful, though sad, song. Wonderful singing and instrumentals.

[AlgrimBlack]

I think this song is so underrated, to me this is just as good as loch lomond or auld lang sine, love it

[Chuepox]

this is a great version, my personal fave, and the one which gave my the idea to do my own

[indetroit442]

love it!!!!!!!!!!!

[NameOfRain]

Maev did a version of this with a little "darker" sound. Clannad (the band, not the anime) did a version of this as well, but with slightly different lyrics- the elder sister ends up being killed by being boiled in lead- not a pleasent way to go! I never heard the Appalachia one, but I'm not really surprised to hear that it exists.

[SilverWolfMoon]

@NameOfRain The Clannad lyrics actually say "The elder sister was bored in bed" - to suggest that the 'true love' wasn't worth having!

[NameOfRain]

@SilverWolfMoon It does sound like that! I looked up the lyrics, and I think the actual lyric is "boiled in lead". If you like, feel free to do your own checking. Personally, I like your "bored in bed" better, LOL!

[SilverWolfMoon]

@NameOfRain I think because there are so many versions, people have made little adaptations to the lyrics over the years, and maybe Clannad decided to go for a humourous ending!

[meiriona]

Interesting version of the Child Ballad, I think this is one of my favourite versions

[SuicietyBoozer]

Savršeno!

[logonif]

what does this say to you about sisters? best version I've heard, logonif

[xDerDerx]

Love this long!!!

[keltyk]

my god this one gets deeper and better and intenser as it progresses- Are they massively underrated or what?

[keltyk]

classic rendition- this one's a keeper for absolute sure

[Drowfan]

Beautiful! I like the version of Loreena McKennit too.

[11gokey]

What an absolutely powerful version of this great classic. I get chills!

[darkfey1963]

Loreena McKennitt did a song with many similarities on "The Mask and The Mirror" called "The Bonny Swans" which I like,but I find I prefer this-hadn't heard it before tho I'm familiar with OBD.Obviously resonates very strongly in the Celtic countries.Maybe because the shattering of the bonds of kinship was regarded with such horror in older times,when those kinfolk,& your community,were so critical.Who else did you have?Good fuel for a singer's imagination.Gets an audience's attention!!

[SilverWolfMoon]

@darkfey1963 Yes, there are many songs with the same basic theme but different titles. Personally, I have two versions of 'The Cruel Sister' {OBD and Pentangle}, two of 'The Two Sisters' {Clannad and Jim Moray}, a similar one to that called 'The Berkshire Tragedy' {Nancy Kerr & James Fagan}, 'The Wind and Rain' and 'Thig am Bàta' {Julie Fowlis}, and Loreena McKennitt's 'The Bonny Swans'.

[SilverWolfMoon]

@darkfey1963 There seems to be two main threads, but you only sometimes find both in each song: 1) The drowned sister is found by a miller {or similar}, robbed and thrown back in the water. 2) The body is found by passing minstrels who use her hair and bones to make either a harp or a fiddle.

Swans are only occasionally mentioned in the main songs, like the line about "... and there she floated just like a swan..."

[Guenevere33]

@darkfey1963 Slightly off the subject but does anyone else listen to this song and think it really should have been named, 'The full of himself Knight who thought he could have his cake and eat it too so messed about two sisters causing one of them to snap?' seems much fairer than 'The Cruel Sister' since he courted them both even though he knew he only had true feelings for one which is obviously the cause of it all! :-P

[YasuKikyo]

Quite a morbid tale here (from what I can make out from the lyrics anyway).

Could anyone explain the origins of this particular song to me please? I'm not that familiar with the Celtic folk scene. Just dipping my feet here ^^

[SilverWolfMoon]

@YasuKikyo No one really knows the origins.

The song has versions with different titles and lyrics {but always the same basic story} in Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and parts of Britany, amongst other places.

Most Celtic Folk is about murder, treachery, and general 'darkness'!

[mrrhum]

@YasuKikyo - I don't know if there's anything particularly Celtic about this song. There are also many versions of it in the Scandinavian languages, though the Danes may have picked it up from the Scots. There's a folktale with a similar theme, "The Two Brothers," in Grimm's fairy tales, so it may have a common Germanic origin.

[pirbird14]

@YasuKikyo You might want to have a look at "Twa Sisters" on Wikipedia. Generally, if you want to know something about a traditional song, Google it with "Child Ballad" and see if it was indexed by Francis Child.

[MoteyJoe]

This version is pretty universal.  I remember hearing my grandma singing it almost exactly the same and she says she was singing it that way long before Pentangle did.

[Raidomso]

I came upon this COMPLETELY accidentally, and I loved it. I've already ordered "The World's Room", can't wait to get it!

[donnbowers]

very similar to the version Pentangle did

[SilverWolfMoon]

@donnbowers The band themselves said they took their inspiration from the Pentangle version. There are another two verses, but OBD only used them on the live version (which is on CD) which is not quite as good in sound & tempo as this studio recording.

[MrWeegit]

Sounds good enough to find out more of this band and their tunes.

[agerestrictionforatb]

I've been able to sing along to this since I was six. Through all my musical shifts, from punk to folk to ska to my current state of loving everything, Old Blind Dogs have always been a feature on any mix I burn for a friend.

[blacksunfish]

Gorgeous, powerful rendition.

[PhalainaBelgium]

Well played and sung !!  Phalaïna

[SuperSandman14]

am not scottish or irish but love the song

[TheKaaytaay]

I love this song :)

[SilverWolfMoon]

OBD also do a live version, which includes 2 extra verses {after verse 11}, and they reverse verses 12 & 13. Unfortunately, the overall performance isn't {to my mind} as good as the studio version.

[soppyhankins]

i heard this in my english class the other day...i thought his voice was really funny until i started listening to it. i love it now. they're really good. i'm impressed. and yes, girls are evil when they get jealous. haha

[irland1961]

love the obd`s!!Genial.

Guiness /Germany

[happydaytim]

wow thats gruesome

girls can be so cruel

LOL

[twilighttitania]

LOVE IT...ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT,,,

[tivitivi]

Me encanta esta cancion, es sencillisima y me pone los pelos como escarpias...

[graineag]

Probably one of the most widely-traveled ballads from the British Isles. "An Bhean Udaí Thall" and "A' Bhean Eudach" are Irish and Scottish Gaelic narrative songs of a similar theme. The "Cruel Sister" ballad is found in a number of incarnations in both Scotland and England, and was also collected in Appalachia, where the minstrels made a fiddle or a banjo from the woman's bones.

[SilverWolfMoon]

Wow ~ this is the sort of information I love :)

[happydaytim]

harp, diddnt no the rest though. very interesting

[elrhiarhodan]

@graineag

Can you point me toward a recording of the Appalacian version? I'd love to hear it! This song is amazing in all cases and I enjoy hearing how it evolves as it travels.

[yekdeli]

@elrhiarhodan LIsten to Gillian Welch's version called "The Wind and Rain" for an Appalachian take!

[dangalos]

I first heard this song in a rendition done by the Minstrels of Mayhem. This is an equally wonderful version. The one by Folque i also spectacular.

[treniki]

Это потрясающе!

[SilverWolfMoon]

There is also a live version by the OBD, which includes 3 more verses. Unfortunately, the rest of it doesn't sound nearly as good as this studio version.

If only they had recorded the full song :(

[TheStratovarian]

I can recall reading this as story, but song, as with words, are two unique, but utterly different languages, both grand to the one listening.

[HerzogsShoe]

What do the lyrics 'lay the bend to the bonny broom' mean? (Maybe I'm hearing them incorrectly?) What a superb version of this song, I've always enjoyed Pentangle's, but I think I like this even more.

[SilverWolfMoon]

Well, OBD sing it as "Lay the bairn to the bonny broom", bairn being Scottish for baby or small child. I'm not sure about 'broom', but it probably means the plant / shrub.

I wonder if the original "bent to the bonny broom" had anything to do with making a besom broom ~ 'bent' being the handle stick...?

I found Pentangle's version because of OBD, and they credit it as their direct influence :)

[TossThatCoin]

Couldn't the bonny broom, refer to the guy that's gonna merrie the sister...

[littledancer14]

broom is a shrub with yellow flowers. a bit like gorse

[crlcripps]

That's likely what's meant here. BTW, the plant's Latin name, plantagenista, refers to the English royal house Plantagenet, whose symbol it was. Great old song, done right, here. I,too, like it better than the Pentangle version. It has more immediacy, a greater sense of doom to it, where Pentangle's version, though good, is merely pretty alongside this one.

[jackorion85]

thanks for sharing!!..I had the chance to go and see them playing in Glasgow in January, but I didn't know them yet.. I'm so sorry!

[diane869]

wish i was there.../

[barbh1]

so beautiful!

[SixpennyJack]

Benzie (Bingus) is the boy!

[Djbearrob]

Ian F Benzie has the best voice! It just isn't the same group without him...

[azniterion]

cool

[rbkiernan]

I've always loved this song in all of its incarnations, including Loreena McKennit's "The Bonny Swans" as well as others with the same story but different music - but I believe this particular version by Old Blind Dogs will always be my favorite.

[SilverWolfMoon]

This is currently my favourite version, too :)

There is also a live version, with two or three extra verses.

I also have the Clannad {totally different lyric} version 'Two Sisters', and Pentangle's 'The Cruel Sister', which was the version OBD were inspired by...

[sonoNEKO]

the Norwegian group Folque also has a haunting version under the name "Harpa"

the lyrics are in Norwegian, but they follow the Pentangle version fairly closely, as far as plot, and even some phrases and words translated over almost directly

[ou812uc]

Very nice song, I heard some Jethro Tull influence in some parts, I liked that a bunch!

Thanks for posting Silver!!